Sometimes, I Wish I Could Just Grow A Tomato

Remember the days when foursquare and tag was something that you played outside at recess, and not on your iPhone? The closest I get to nature nowadays is when I Tumblr into the grass, lay on my back and watch the iCoulds roll bye while listening to the birds Tweeting and retweeting.

Technology is overwhelming. While reading “The Best of the Consumer Electronics Show 2014”, I quickly realized that I am going to have trouble surviving in this world if I don’tmake a stronger effort to catch up with all this techbot stuff. The things I read literally frighten me to my Intel core processor i7: “Sign into Facebook with your eyeballs”, “Bluetooth for your teeth” and “Cars might drive better than people can.”

Lately I’ve been thinking to myself: I just want to grow a tomato, and I can’t. There is something in our genetic make up that responds in a positive way to walking barefoot in grass, taking a nap surrounded by flowers, picking an apple off a tree and jumping off rocks into a river. I actually clicked on a banner ad and watched a TV commercial on my cell phone promoting a website selling a book on “Exercising In Nature Like A Caveman”. Everything is so complicated and confusing.

Last year, after hurricane Sandy I experienced how far we have diverged from nature. One storm caused New York City’s hard-drive to crash. No electricity, gas, or public transportation created scenes resembling The Walking Dead. City dwellers do not design and build homes with wood burning fireplaces anymore. If we lose gas and electricity, we cant even light a fire to keep warm and cook food. If it wasn’t for my time on Survivor, I wouldn’t have the skills to make fire, build a shelter, find potable water, or grow a tomato. To be honest, the last time I heard about a nice Jewish boy camping in the middle of the forest was when the teen tour forgot him at Yellowstone National Park.

As of 2008, more people lived in cities than the countryside. That marked a huge moment in human history, and it means one of two things: Either the human connection to nature will continue to fade, or it means the beginning of a new kind of city. It’s vital to connect with nature as much as you can. Richard Louv, the author of the bestsellers Last Child in the Woods andThe Nature Principle, coined the term “nature-deficit disorder” to describe the loss of connection humans increasingly feel with the natural world. Nature-deficit disorder is not a clinically recognized condition, but rather a term to evoke a loss of communion with other living things. Louv argues, “nature-deficit disorder affects “health, spiritual well-being, and many other areas, including [people’s] ability to feel ultimately alive.”

When people are asked paint a picture of what our world will look like in the future, they tend to describe Blade Runner or Mad Max. A world stripped of nature. If this is where most people think we are heading, then we are in trouble. Martin Luther King Jr. said and demonstrated that; “any culture will fail if it can not paint a picture of a world that people will want to go to”, I mean his speech was not called “I Have A Nightmare”. The picture that CES is painting is scary. One way to change this scene is through “biophilic design” [nature-inspired design], which is the incorporation of nature where we live, work, learn, and play, not only as something we drive an hour to visit. Not only parks, but also in the way we design our neighborhoods, our backyards, and our buildings.

I do not have all the answers (shocker), but one thing I do know is that you should stop reading this article, turn off your phone and hug a tree. If you are lucky enough to have a yard, grow something…like a tomato. Oh yeah, and make sure you truly absorb this experience with nature and tweet, Facebook, Instagram and Skype all about it!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ethan Zohn

Ethan Zohn gives the word survivor a whole new meaning. After winning the reality televison show Survivor Africa in 2002, Ethan battled two very public bouts with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He became the...read more

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